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New center caps off financial turnaround for ORU

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS

Associated Press

TULSA (AP) — Oral Roberts University on Friday dedicated a $12 million student and alumni center, capping a five-year turnaround at the small evangelical school after years mired in debt, flagging enrollment and a financial scandal involving then-president Richard Roberts that led to his resignation.

The 28,000-square-foot Armand Hammer Alumni-Student Center was built debt-free through a major fundraising campaign. It marks the first major construction project on the south Tulsa campus in more than 30 years.

“Throughout this process we kept the students in mind,” school president Mark Rutland said Friday. “This new building is just for students, so that they have a place for food, fun and fellowship on campus. We are grateful for all the alumni and friends that made this building a reality.”

The idea of a fully funded project such as the student center was unfathomable in 2007, when the school known for its 60-foot-high bronze sculpture of praying hands and funky 1960s-era architecture announced it was $55 million in debt.

As the private school went public with its financial troubles, then-president Richard Roberts and his wife, Lindsay, were accused of frittering away university money on lavish vacations, home remodels and other luxuries — allegations they repeatedly denied.

Roberts, son of the school founder Oral Roberts, stepped down in late 2007 as morale fell among students and faculty.

Alumni were also reluctant to open their wallets as details of the Roberts’ spending habits unfolded. Oral Roberts died in 2009; Richard Roberts continues to run his own ministry based in Tulsa but apart from the school.

Within days of Roberts’ resignation, billionaire Oklahoma City businessman Mart Green — heir to the Hobby Lobby craft supply store fortune — took the reins at ORU after donating $70 million and pledging to restore the public’s trust in the school.

Green made good on his pledge. The debt was eliminated, disenchanted alumni were again courted and $50 million was sunk into overhauling a campus that had become worse for wear.

The school has also had four straight years of enrollment growth and this past fall, it welcomed its largest freshman class in 10 years, said school spokesman Jeremy Burton.